Red Velvet Cupcakes

I grew up in Maryland and have lived in the Midwest for over 13 years, but I love southern food, like jambalaya, hush puppies, sweet potato casserole, pulled pork, pecan pie and any kind of corn bread! Red velvet cake is a very popular dessert in the South. I have made red velvet cupcakes from a box (I used either Duncan Hines or Better Crocker, I can't remember) and while they were delicious, I was curious if I could make my own version from scratch. A key ingredient in a red velvet cake or cupcakes is buttermilk. I made a special trip yesterday to the grocery store and would you believe, I couldn't find any in the dairy case?!?!? Rather than giving up, I made my own. There are only two ingredients to buttermilk - lemon juice (which I haven't tried) or white vinegar (which I used) and milk. Did you ever see that movie, Steel Magnolias? If you did, do you remember the armadillo groom's cake? it was made out of red velvet cake!  I whipped some of these cupcakes up yesterday afternoon. They are so yummy that if I close my eyes while I'm eating one, I can almost picture myself down in the South where it's warm and sunny, instead of here, where we had to shovel a path,

To get to our mailbox!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
2 1/3 cups white flour
2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put cupcake liners into a 12-cup cupcake tin. In large bowl, put the sugar and butter. Beat with electric mixer on low speed for two minutes or by hand until smooth. Add the eggs, flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix until well combined. In small bowl, put the buttermilk, red food coloring, vanilla extract and the white vinegar. If you need to make your own buttermilk, put a tablespoon of white vinegar in a one cup measuring cup and pour in enough milk to make one cup. Let it stand 15 minutes. Add the ingredients of the smaller bowl into the ingredients in the large bowl and beat on low speed for about one minute or by hand until well incorporated. Pour batter evenly into the cupcake liners. This recipe made 18 cupcakes for me, but I filled the cupcake liners just a teeny bit too full!  The next time I make these cupcakes, I think I'll only fill the tins about 1/2 way up with batter :) Bake for 18-21 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove from oven and let them cool about five minutes before transferring to a wire rack to continue cooling. When cupcakes are completely cool, frost with the cream cheese frosting below. Store covered in the fridge.

Cream Cheese Frosting

4 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Put all ingredients in a medium bowl and mix by hand or with electric mixer until smooth and creamy.

* Feel free to sprinkle the cupcakes with red sprinkles (like I did) or with chopped pecans!